Day: November 23, 2018

Hajj pilgrim at Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2003 The hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims, is one of the largest and most meaningful movements of people in the world. Last year, more than two million of the devout from all over the world travelled to Saudi[…]

Examining the available evidence for the use of horses and armor for them in medieval Islam warfare, with particular reference to the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring regions. By Dr. David Nicolle / 06.30.2017 Visiting Research Fellow University of Nottingham Abstract The widely held view that horse armour was not used in the early Islamic Middle East is[…]

In 14th-century London, Church leaders discovered how to make a tidy income from sex workers. By Dr. Kate Lister / 06.05.2018 Lecturer in the History of Sexuality Leeds Trinity University Wherever there have been people buying and selling sex, there have been laws trying to suppress, regulate or profit from it, and medieval London was[…]

Fresco in the Pellegrinaioof the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, Domenico, di Bartolo / Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons The line between confession and counselling has been blurred for centuries. In fact, confession in the Middle Ages was thought to improve physical and mental wellbeing and was even used as a treatment for all sorts[…]

Several of the newly identified stone tools – unearthed from a museum collection. Hu Yue A fresh look at museum artifacts fills in a gap in the Asian archaeological record and refutes the idea that an advanced technique was imported from the West by early modern humans. By (left-to-right): Dr. Ben Marwick, Dr. Bo Li, and Hu Yue /[…]

The ‘Venus of Willendorf’ at around 28,000 years old is one of the earliest depictions of women in art (Source: Ziko van Dijk). Wikimedia Commons Taking a quick look at some examples where Palaeolithic women or their activities tell us something about our past. By Dr. Darren Curnoe / 02.23.2017 Associate Professor Biological Anthropology and Archaeological Science UNSW Australia[…]